Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
We share online here in OPF and elsewhere on the web, to get feedback and just for fun. At the best of times, it's really good advice. We might get the extra nudge we hope for to be able to solve a way of showing what we really wanted to from the outset. We say now "This" is a great improvement!" and might go on to alter our photograph, rework it to fit in better to ideas of balance, power, significance and the like. But what is the "This" that is so much better?
The "This", I refer to, is the essence discovered by the self-trained eye of the person creating art. I add "self" as ultimately our suggested instructions on someone else's photograph are unlikely to match the essence of what is magical to the author. Instead, each of these critical offerings are merely referring to an essence that well-intended commentators consider express and could provide the best experience to a certain audience. The weakness, of this way of getting more knowledge about one's work, is that critiques can, in themselves, become considered as "informed, expert and authoritative". That's a common problem! The artist must, be smart enough to not take every suggestion, even brilliant one's, as appropriate or necessary. Let me add some 4 references against which critique should be tested for worth. So, we should pause to get clarity of purpose and intent in order to act effectively. Outright rejection might be self-defeating if we are stubborn and closed in meeting needs for a Promotional Campaign, for example. So test the photograph as shown and proposed changes against one or more of the following parameters that are relevant to this picture:
We need to know the answers to this inquiry to protect our integrity while benefiting from other's open to ideas and having our work serve the needs of society when that's the task at hand.
I warn anyone looking at my own "comments", feedback" or "critique" that this is just my own way of making something more of an effective voice for the artist. Neither I nor anyone else can or wishes to say how anyone else's art, choice #1 above, "should" be presented to be more effective. Rather we offer examples of where we, in humility, think you might find value in exploring.
If you choose, reject the entire idea of changing! Then tough luck on us that others "just don't get it!" For art, if it some new idea doesn't actually help materialize in physical form what the artist thinks and intended, then it must be rejected, simple as that. I'm saying that a lot of our well-meaning critique must be taken with a pinch of salt!
The exception is for the other 3 more practical needs in photography, where, (apart from the obviously naive replies), we, in OPF, have a far much better then even chance of being right, helpful and on the mark.
Asher
The "This", I refer to, is the essence discovered by the self-trained eye of the person creating art. I add "self" as ultimately our suggested instructions on someone else's photograph are unlikely to match the essence of what is magical to the author. Instead, each of these critical offerings are merely referring to an essence that well-intended commentators consider express and could provide the best experience to a certain audience. The weakness, of this way of getting more knowledge about one's work, is that critiques can, in themselves, become considered as "informed, expert and authoritative". That's a common problem! The artist must, be smart enough to not take every suggestion, even brilliant one's, as appropriate or necessary. Let me add some 4 references against which critique should be tested for worth. So, we should pause to get clarity of purpose and intent in order to act effectively. Outright rejection might be self-defeating if we are stubborn and closed in meeting needs for a Promotional Campaign, for example. So test the photograph as shown and proposed changes against one or more of the following parameters that are relevant to this picture:
- One's own artistic intent to produce Art that is valued.
- A commercial, or social, political or cultural need.
- A functional purpose.
- A memento or whim to make something fun and agreeable to some group..
We need to know the answers to this inquiry to protect our integrity while benefiting from other's open to ideas and having our work serve the needs of society when that's the task at hand.
I warn anyone looking at my own "comments", feedback" or "critique" that this is just my own way of making something more of an effective voice for the artist. Neither I nor anyone else can or wishes to say how anyone else's art, choice #1 above, "should" be presented to be more effective. Rather we offer examples of where we, in humility, think you might find value in exploring.
If you choose, reject the entire idea of changing! Then tough luck on us that others "just don't get it!" For art, if it some new idea doesn't actually help materialize in physical form what the artist thinks and intended, then it must be rejected, simple as that. I'm saying that a lot of our well-meaning critique must be taken with a pinch of salt!
The exception is for the other 3 more practical needs in photography, where, (apart from the obviously naive replies), we, in OPF, have a far much better then even chance of being right, helpful and on the mark.
Asher